Portable removable storage devices, such as devices that combine Universal Serial Bus (USB) connections with Flash memory devices, have become widely used to store data. These devices can be connected to any computer system with a USB port and are small enough to be carried in the user's pocket or on their keychain. In addition, the amount of storage space in these devices has increased dramatically, such that devices with 2 gigabytes of storage are available in the keychain form factor.
When connected with a computer, these devices are made available to the user in the same manner that fixed disks are made available. The user can navigate the file systems on the removable storage device using the same interface as is available for fixed disks.
These devices are primarily utilized for document storage, including the storage of text documents, image files, presentations, spreadsheets and similar data. Applications are not typically installed on these devices, because most operating systems track application data in a registry, which can result in inaccurate registry entries when the removable device is disconnected.
Similarly, operating systems are not installed on these devices because they are configured to execute with a particular computer by installation and execution of drivers that are specific to that computer. The removable portable storage devices are moved frequently between computers with different computers with different hardware configurations. Thus, an operating system installed on these devices is not easily configured.